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I've heard that the new models also have a "faster CPU", but I haven't been able to find any additional information on it. Brandon, have you heard anything about this, and if so do you know anything about how it's "faster"? Is it simply clocked higher?

This looks like a strange hardware update from Nintendo. It's almost like an intermediary console between the 3DS and whatever comes next. I'm pretty sure this is the first time Nintendo has ever done something like this. Usually when they do a revision (like the DS Lite) it's just a smaller/lighter formfactor with maybe a better display and battery life, but they've never increased performance. I heard there's already an exclusive title for the New 3DS that's not compatible with the original.Reply

While they haven't done the added better processors with things pre-DS, they have added new new hardware when they made the GBA SP that had a backlit screen and added the cool clamshell form factor.Reply

Actually, there WERE exclusives, but all in the form of DSiWare. Some packaged games also made use of the camera, optionally, in the way some GB games could work as GBC games to make use of its more advanced functions. But I don't believe any packaged games were exclusive to it.Reply

This is debateably accurate. I'd consider the Gameboy Color to be similar to the DSi or this new 3DS and it doubled the clock speed and quadroupled the RAM. Same game compatibility with a few exclusives, same screen resolution, etc.Reply

By faster CPU, it's probably just a higher clock of the same CPU. Yields have probably improved since initial production and they are able to clock them higher.

This is pretty common, even in the PC industry. Remember the Surface 2 Pro's that had a i5-4200U then a few months later were just replaced with i5-4300U's because Intel started having better yeilds and didn't want to make the old chip anymore.

But not to state the obvious: the CPU won't run faster in games to guarantee platform compatibility with older hardware. Such is the limitation of the console market...so the faster CPU resources will be dedicated to things like improved 3D tracking performance, faster web browsing, etc...

Obviously the additional memory can be utilized in games the same way the 4MB RDRAM upgrade for the N64 was utilized by games like Turok II and GoldenEye by running a software-developer-optimized "performance mode"

In the case of Turok II, texture filtering was turned on and texture resolution was doubled. In the case of GoldenEye, multiplayer split-screen detail was better. Many games took advantage of the extra memory BUT STILL ran fine on systems without the memory upgrade.Reply

There are a significant number of games that support the "circle pad pro", which is an add-on second analog stick. I assume Nintendo will use the same protocol for this analog stick, so those games will already support it, and any future games will probably support either the add-on or the built-in.

where is that second analogue stick? that tiny grey dot above the XYAB keys? If that's it then not sure if its going to work too well, seems smaller and less travel than even the OG PSP's craptacular stickReply

I wonder if we'll see many more games, except for the forthcoming Xenoblade Chronicles, to make use of the upgraded hardware. I believe that, for most part, the new specs will help to make the OS to run faster (it is currently very slow) and take care of the head tracking to improve the 3D effect.Reply